Internet services last week, an analysis of outbound text messages shows that mobile messaging services are still largely blocked.

The findings could have ramifications for the ongoing unrest in Egypt. The disruption of the country’s mainstream Internet and cellular networks has inspired Egyptians to seek out alternative communication methods.

The text messaging data comes from Sybase 365, a California-based provider of mobile messaging and commerce services that was acquired by business software giant SAP last year. Sybase says it has been monitoring Egypt’s text messaging (also known as SMS) traffic from data centers based in Paris and the U.S. The company says it can see traffic that is being sent from wireless carriers active in Egypt, including Etisalat, Mobinil and Vodafone, to U.S. carriers.

A snapshot of Egypt's SMS traffic late last week shows a dramatic slowdown in the evening of Jan. 27 that continued until at least 8 pm on Jan. 28 (as measured in universal or Greenwich Mean Time). Two of Egypt’s major operators, Mobinil and Vodafone, appeared to be fully blocked while Etisalat seemed to be carrying a small amount of text message traffic.

While the chart (above) only tracks trends through the night of Jan. 28, Sybase spokesman Bill Dudley says the company continues to watch the Egyptian carriers and the trend remains the same. (In the chart, "MT" stands for “Mobile-Terminated,” meaning traffic that originated in Egypt and was directed at U.S. carriers. Sybase declined to identify the U.S. carriers it is observing but says they offer a representative sample of Egypt-U.S. SMS traffic.)

For a four-hour period early Saturday morning (3 a.m. to 7 a.m. Eastern Standard Time), Etisalat managed to send text messages. Since that time, however, international SMS traffic from Egypt to the outside world has been “virtually nil,” wrote Dudley in an email to Forbes.

Sybase’s data might seem to contradict recent news that mobile networks within Egypt are back online. Dudley says that while that may be true, “significant gaps” in service still exist, largely because of obstructed Internet access. “Much of Egypt’s international SMS traffic likely rides on secure tunnels through some of the Internet connections that have been blocked,” concluded Dudley.

One remaining option may be to send text messages via satellite phones. The challenge, of course, is that very few people own these pricey devices, which generally cost around $1,000.

UPDATE: Google just announced a speak-to-tweet service that does not require an Internet connection. The new service is meant to provide another way for Egyptians to stay connected during this difficult time.

How do you think the text message slowdown will affect what's happening in Egypt? Let me know in the comments below.